


Not Like That

by rollingday_s



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Crack, Friendship, Humour, M/M, Multi, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-06
Updated: 2017-04-06
Packaged: 2018-10-15 10:02:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10554456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rollingday_s/pseuds/rollingday_s
Summary: Sakurai Sho doesn't know why everyone thinks he's gay.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Previously posted at LJ. 
> 
> Arashi don’t belong to me, but if they did I'm pretty sure Sho would want me to tell you he is NOT gay. Got it? Alright then. You may proceed.

Sakurai Sho is not gay.

    He might enjoy grabbing his friend Aiba's butt sometimes, but that doesn't mean anything. The butt is simply there, and Sho being fond of firm buttcheeks - in a totally non-gay way - just feels like he has to check if they're firm enough. He's doing it for his friend, really. He's checking that he's still in shape for the sake of their fans. He knows fans like firm buttocks. He might be - uhm, what was that, ah, yes! - _turning a blind eye to combi-moe_ , but he couldn't let his friend's butt become all saggy and soft. It was an act of selflessness. Not a gay thing at all.

    And by the way, Aiba wasn't such an innocent soul either. Even if we want to ignore all the times _he_ grabbed his butt - and Sho could tell you the exact number because he is meticolous like that - he saw the way the man looked at him. He saw the way he would turn around to look at him every time he found something funny or confusing. Or the way he would smile at him when he lifted his glance and found Sho in front of him. Or the way he would catch his eyes and quickly avert his glance like he'd just been caught. Sho saw him every time. Because Sho was also looking, of course. But not in a gay way. In a protective, brotherly way, you could say. It's not his fault if sometimes he gets carried away and ends up staring at his long lashes hiding his beautiful eyes. Or if his gaze wanders on his dry lips and he feels the urge to wet them somehow, so they can look more inviting. Or if he stares too much at his abs whenever Aiba decides to strip during a program or a concert. Or if, like right now, he ends up in a trance while looking at the man smiling beautifully for the camera.

    "Okay, let's take another one," the photographer says. "Sakurai-san, you're not looking at me," he adds, a little impatient.

    "Eh? Oh, sorry." Sho straightens up.

    It doesn't take long until his gaze wanders again to Aiba. The photographer seems to give up yelling at him after the third time. He really can't look away, and he's aware of that. Is that gay? He shakes his head. No, he's doing it for the fans. He's checking that everything looks good for their sake. That's called being a professional, he thinks proudly. So not gay at all.

 

2.

Sakurai Sho is all but gay.

    Yes, he noticed Jun's shoulders have become broader and broader with time, and that fascinates him from a purely scientific point of view. He also noticed Jun's muscles are more defined now than they were a few years ago, so he simply has to touch them to test if he's training regularly. He's doing this out of the goodness of his heart, really. He has some prior experience with training and muscles - granted, his are just "air" muscles, but they're still there - so he knows he could be of help to Jun if he ever needed advice. He's simply checking if the muscles are growing steadily, so he can offer his help as soon as he feels like Jun had been slacking off. After all, he was the responsible one in the group, so he had to keep his bandmates in check. The fans loved Jun's shoulders! It was his duty as an Arashi member to keep them the way they were. That wasn't gay.

    And, by the way, he could never like Jun _that way_. Not after that rude comment of his while he was a guest on THE Yakai.

    "I like him as a member," Jun had said. "But there's no _love_."

    No love, he had said! And he laughed, at that! Sho had felt a little hurt at his words. No-Love Matsujun was lying to himself if he thought that. What about all the times he called him in the middle of the night to ask him out for a drink, then!? What about that time when they were Juniors, when he idolised him and followed him around all day!? What about when during the last concert he chose to huddle beside Sho when he started his encouragement speech!? He had passed an arm behind Sho's back and he had felt the muscles contract as he touched him. He knew that couldn't have been a coincidence. No-Love Jun totally had the hots for him, but was just too tsundere to come clean about it. Maybe he was the gay one!

    "Sho-kun, is everything okay?" He hears Jun's voice say. They had just finished filming for THE Yakai, and now they were getting ready to go home.

    "What? Yeah, fine," he says distractedly, still a little stung by Jun's comment from earlier.

    "Good," he says, apparently satisfied with the answer. "So, that was weird," he adds.

    "What was?" Sho asks.

    "You know, the way Ariyoshi-san kept on bugging us about the whole love thing," he laughs, a bit embarrassed.

    Sho blushed a little and joined in. "Yeah, so weird."

    ' _Well, yeah,_ ' Sho thinks while driving home, ' _maybe it was a little weird that I would get so worked up about it. But not gay, right?_ ' He shakes his head. ' _No, not gay at all._ '

 

3.

Sakurai Sho is so straight that you have no idea.

    Okay, he did imagine that it would be good to draw Ohno naked once, but to be fair, that was just for research purposes. Anatomy research purposes. Because Sho wanted to be good at drawing, and he had read somewhere that the best way to study human proportions is to study a real naked body with an artist's eye. You should be able to see the various pieces of the anatomy connected together and think of them as separate blocks that formed the human body. He needed to see for himself how light hit those parts singularly and as a whole. And who better than Ohno to help him with his art project? It's not that he especially liked Ohno's body or something, but he though that, as a fellow artist, he might want to help out. Maybe Ohno would want to draw him naked in return, and Sho felt like it would be a great way to repay him. Just two fellow artists doing artsy things. Find the gay in that.

    There are things Sho likes about Ohno's body, though, if he had to admit it. When he sleeps, for example. He's fascinated by the way he curles up in a ball against the couch. The curve his body makes... yes, that would be a perfect model for Sho's studies. Or... the way he dances, he thinks, as he watches Ohno learning his steps in front of him. The way his arm gracefully extends to form an arc in the air is exceptionally erotic, he thinks. Err-- no, not erotic, he meant _exotic_. Like those hula dancers or whatever. And the way he steps forward just to snap back with a fluid movement of his body. Yes, Sho really wants to paint Ohno as he dances naked, while dots of colours swirl all around him trying to imitate his movements. And wouldn't it be great if Sho could dance with him as well? Err-- no, not _with_ him. He meant _like_ him. Definitely.

    "Sho-san, you're up," says the choreographer, interrupting his thoughts.

    "Ah, yes, sorry." He makes to get up when he notices something's wrong with his body. "On second thought," he adds frantically, blushing while crossing his legs hastily, "maybe let Aiba go first?"

    The choreographer nods without any complaints. "Fine, then, Aiba-san?" Aiba steps in energically and starts repeating his steps to the sound of the music.

    Sho sits confused. Did he just get a boner while thinking about Ohno's naked body? He shakes his head. Of course not. He must have been thinking about the very cute, very female coreographer when that happened. He isn't gay after all, he concludes, contentedly.

 

4.

Sakurai Sho has only straight thoughts.

    Well, he does think Nino is cute sometimes, but that's not his fault. He's so tiny and skinny, he almost looks like a girl, so... like... that would be so not gay even if he did think about that. But he doesn't, anyway, so there's nothing to worry about. He likes to push Nino about, yes, but that's just because he's light as a feather, and he finds it so funny. He could probably pick him up even with those air muscles of his, and pin him against a wall with no effort. Not that he would have any reasons to, of course.

    And while Nino's appearance could be easily mistaken as a girly one, there was no doubt in Sho's mind that he looked his manliest when he played an instrument. Sho was in awe at Nino's dexterity for not one, not two, but three instruments. He himself played piano, so he knew how difficult it was to learn, and he had nothing but admiration for his friend, who was a skilled guitarist as well as being a pianist and a drummer. So he asked him once, "would you teach me how to play the guitar?" Because Sho liked Nino the best when he could see his hand strumming the strings, while the other hand skillfully played the fretboard. He was amazed at Nino's agile fingers moving up and down the neck of the guitar with no effort. He often wondered what it would feel like to intertwine his fingers with his, holding his hand like that... in a totally non-gay way, of course! He really just wanted to know if you could feel Nino's callouses on his fingertips, because he couldn't imagine his hands not being soft as a cloud. But he digressed.

    So, he had asked Nino to teach him how to play the guitar, and to his surprise and joy, he had said yes. He had spent the whole morning thinking about it, and now Nino was putting the guitar in his lap and was standing behind him to show him how to play, his fingers pressing his own on the fretboard, his beard stubble tickling his cheeks on one side. If he has to think about it some more, he realises that this moment looks a little like a scene from one of those romantic American movies, when the guy gets behind the girl to teach her how to play baseball and stuff like that. He shakes his head. Surely this isn't the same thing. Playing guitar is a _manly_ thing. Not gay at all, no.

 

5.

Sakurai Sho doesn't know why everyone thinks he's gay.

    Seriously, though. He never did anything to make people doubt he could be. He stated it very clearly, didn't he, that he didn't do any of those _BL plays_ and _combi-moe_ stuff? He didn't even know what those words meant! He had to make a thorough research before he could understand what the fans were saying. He had bought dozens of BL mangas - entirely for research purposes, obviously - and found that he didn't like them one bit, after he read the first one. He did keep on reading, because Sho was one of those people who had to finish what he started, but that's not the point. He did also read the rest of them, but that's only because, he thought, you never know when you could find a potential diamond in the rough. Of course, he didn't find it, but that's just because he's not gay, so BL mangas are not his thing. ' _This should prove I'm straight, right?'_ He thinks as he makes a disapproving noise while looking bitterly at his laptop's screen.

    "What's wrong, Sho-chan?"

    Sho turns around. Aiba is speaking to him from his spot on the carpet near him. Everyone in the greenroom lifts their heads to look at him.

    "I don't get it!" He says angrily while looking back at the screen. "I came out and said it clearly! I said that I'm not like _that_ and yet the fans still think I have a thing for men! I'm not gay!" He yells, blushing a little.

    The room is silent. Sho turns around again to see that everyone is looking away.

    "Sho-kun..." Ohno starts, looking anywhere but his way.

    "It's okay, Sho-chan," continues Aiba, putting a hand on top of his.

    "We know," says Jun, going back to his book.

    "Yeah, but we didn't know _you_ didn't," says Nino closing his Nintendo and going to sit on his side opposite Aiba. "For such a smart-head, you're pretty dumb, uh?"

    Sho starts panicking. "I'm not--" he starts. "I mean-- Why would you--"

    "Remember when you asked me to teach you how to play the guitar? It's a miracle how you even managed to learn one chord right, you were shaking and blushing so much every time I reached to put your fingers in shape." Nino rolls his eyes.

    "You kinda did get a boner watching me dance once. Luckily the choreographer didn't catch that," Ohno laughs.

    "You look at me longingly when you think I'm not looking," Aiba nods. "Don't you ever wonder why we have to take so many pictures for our photoshoots? You hardly look at the camera. The photographers hate that," he giggles.

    "Yeah, and when Ariyoshi-san kept blabbing about like and love and all that stuff, I saw how that made you uncomfortable," Jun explains.

    "So there's that," Ohno says thougthtfully. "Oh, and also the fact that you told us."

    "Yeah," Aiba says. "You have the habit of confessing to us when you're drunk. You professed your undying love to me five times already this month, I believe."

    "Six for me," grins Jun.

    "It's been three times for me," says Nino. "But it's just the 10th of October, I guess I still have time to catch up. Riida?"

    "Ah. Three for me as well."

    Still blushing, Sho stutters: "and-- and you're okay with that?"

    "It's fine," says Jun standing up from his chair and hugging him from behind.

    "Yeah. Sho-chan? We like you too." Aiba kisses him on his right cheek and rests his head on his shoulder.

    "It didn't feel right to take advantage of you when you were drunk, so we waited," says Ohno, making Aiba move a little so he can put his head on his lap.

    "But you really took your sweet time, uh?" Nino takes his hand in his and smirks.

    Sho looks at his friend's contented faces and feels his chest getting warmer. ' _Alright_ ,' he concedes, ' _this is a little gay_.'

    Sakurai Sho is not so straight after all. And now he knows.


End file.
